NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF FRACTURE SET FORMATION - A FRACTURE-MECHANICS MODEL CONSISTENT WITH EXPERIMENTAL-OBSERVATIONS

A physically based model for the evolution of a single set of planar, parallel fractures subject to a constant remote stress is presented. The model simulates the mechanical interaction between fractures using a recently developed approximation technique for stress analysis in elastic solids with many fractures. A comparison between experimental and numerical results shows that the model can accurately simulate the development of experimentally generated fracture sets. Once the flaw geometry is specified, only one parameter controls the geometric evolution of the fracture set. This parameter, the velocity exponent, relates fracture propagation velocity to stress concentration at the fracture tip. Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses suggest that this parameter also controls the extent to which fracture growth is concentrated within zones or clusters. Similar analyses suggest that the extent of fracture clustering is less sensitive to the flaw density.